Actor/Comedian Patton Oswalt, during his recent appearance on the You Made It Weird podcast hosted by comic Pete Holmes , said of the recent sexual abuse allegations against Cosby that his alleged behavior has long been a badly kept secret in the comedy world.
“The Bill Cosby thing is so f**king awful, and what’s worse for comedians is a lot of us have known for a long f**king time. It was a very badly kept secret in the comedian world, and a lot of us would talk about it. Bobcat Goldthwait would mention it all the time, and really people would just go, ‘ah, that’s bulls**t.’ It took this long, and what really drives me f**king crazy about it is the idea that these women… just imagine, he did the s**t he did to these women when they were young and they were on this upswing. ‘Oh wow! My life is starting, my career’s starting… I’m gonna meet Bill Cosby,’ and this awful thing happens. They can never talk about it, so he’s just shot the ground out from under them. Not just in that one incident, but for decades of their lives when they’re supposed to be enjoying the time when they’re in their physical prime, in their mental prime, enjoying life. Some guy takes that away from them, he doesn’t lose a second of sleep over it… and by the way, how many women have come forward at this point, like thirteen? That means that there’s hundreds. That means that there’s f**king hundreds. If you see one cockroach there’s a thousand in your house. And they had to sit there for decades while this guy did this over and over again, didn’t lose any sleep, was beloved, and even now, everything is being taken away from him, but at worst he lives in comfy seclusion for the last years of his life. He lives in absolute luxurious exile for the rest of his life. That is one of the horrors of life.’”
Oswalt’s comments about Cosby come after the U.S. Navy revoked Cosby’s honorary title of Chief Petty Officer that was given to Cosby in 2011, according to Time Magazine . Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus issued a statement regarding the Navy’s decision.
“The Navy is taking this action because allegations against Mr. Cosby are very serious and are in conflict with the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment.”
The Los Angeles Times also reported that Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is open to investigating the allegations against Cosby, regardless of the statute of limitations. Cmdr. Andrew Smith, an LAPD spokesman, commented on the importance of investigating sexual assault allegations, even in instances where the statute has run out.
“Unfortunately, sexual offenses tend to be serial offenses. You find victim after victim after victim.”
The recent avalanche of allegations against Cosby began several months ago after comic Hannibal Buress called Cosby a rapist during a stand-up comedy set.